STEPS IN THE CIVIL LITIGATION PROCESS

Generally, steps in the civil litigation process start with filing a lawsuit, then the petition is accepted, next a decision to bring the case to trial is made, and finally, the lawsuit will be judged by the Court. In case the first-instance judgment of the Court is appealed or protested against, the lawsuit shall be reviewed by the appellate court. A legally enforceable judgement of the Court is found serious breach of the law or new circumstances as prescribed by the Civil Code shall be determined under cassation or retrial procedures respectively[1]. In this article, we only provide content of steps in the civil litigation process at the first-instance level. According to the Code of Civil Procedure 2015, at the first instance level, the lawsuit will be resolved through the following procedures:

1. Acceptance of the Court

The petitioner can directly submit a petition at the Court, or send it by post or submit it online at the Court’s Website Portal (if any)[2]. In case of directly filing a lawsuit, the petitioner will be issued with a certificate of receipt of the petition. In case of filing by post, the Court shall send a notice of receipt to the petitioner at the address where the petition was sent. In case the petition is submitted online, the petitioner will be issued a notice of receipt of the petition by the Court via the Court’s web portal (if any).

According to the steps in the civil litigation process prescribed in the Code of Civil Procedure 2015, within 03 days of the date of receipt of the petition, the Chief Justice of the Court shall assign a Judge to consider the petition. Within five working days from the date of assignation, the Judge who is assigned to consider the petition should do the following tasks:

• Requesting an amendment or a supplement to the petition;
• Carrying out an acceptance procedure of the lawsuit;
• Transferring the petition to the competent Court and notifying the petitioner if the case falls under the jurisdiction of another Court;
• Returning the petition to the petitioner if the case does not fall to the jurisdiction of the Court.

2. Mediation and preparation for a trial

In the steps in the civil litigation process the term of a trial preparation can last from 2 to 4 months and can be extended from 1 to 2 months depending on the type of lawsuit as well as the nature, complexity of the lawsuit that such a term[3].

During the term of preparation for a first-instance hearing, the Court should conduct conciliation to enable the litigants to reach an agreement on the resolution of the case (except cases where conciliation is neither allowed nor conducted as prescribed in the Code of Civil Procedure[4]).

During the preparation for the hearing, as the case may be, the Judge should issue one of the following decisions[5]:

• a recognition of the agreement reached by the litigants if they have reached an agreement on the resolution of the case;
• temporary suspension of the resolution of the case;
• suspension of the resolution of the case;
• bringing the lawsuit to trial. Within one month from the date of issuance of the decision, the Court must open the trial; for a proper reason, the Court may open the trial within two months[6].

3. Opening the trial

In the steps in the civil litigation process, at the first-instance trial the Trial Panel administers the trial according to the following process:

• Preparing for the opening of the trial[7];
• Starting the trial[8];
• Making oral argument at the trial[9];
• Conducting deliberation of a judgment and pronouncement of the judgment[10].

Above is an overview of the steps in the civil litigation process. If you have trouble with legal issues regarding the steps in the civil litigation process, please contact us: please contact us: Phuoc & Partners is a professional consulting firm established in Vietnam and currently has nearly 100 members working in three offices in Ho Chi Minh City, Hanoi and Danang. Phuoc & Partners is also rated as one of the leading consulting firms specializing in business law in Vietnam that has leading practice areas in the legal market such as Intellectual Property, Labor and Employment, Taxation, Merger and acquisition, Litigation. We are confident in providing Clients with optimal and effective legal service.

[1] Article 17 of the Code of Civil Procedure 2015.

[2] Article 190.1 of the Code of Civil Procedure 2015.

[3] Article 203.1 of the Code of Civil Procedure 2015.

[4] Article 205.1 of the Code of Civil Procedure 2015.

[5] Article 203.3 of the Code of Civil Procedure 2015.

[6] Article 203.4 of the Code of Civil Procedure 2015.

[7] Article 237 of the Code of Civil Procedure 2015.

[8] Article 239 – 246 of the Code of Civil Procedure 2015.

[9] Article 247 – 263 of the Code of Civil Procedure 2015.

[10] Article 264 – 267 of the Code of Civil Procedure 2015.